[Newspaper]
Publication: The San Francisco Bulletin
San Francisco, CA, United States
vol. 96, no. 54, p. 1, col. 1-7
WITH HER MOTHER'S PICTURE PRESSED TO HER
HEART CARLOTTA HAMINGWAY KILLS HERSELF
LEAVES A TEARFUL NOTE TO THE MAN
WHO HAD WON THE LOVE OF HER YOUTH
Husband Leaves the
Scene of Death for
Palace
Pleads Heart Disease
as Reason for
Leaving.
With her mother's picture pressed to her heart by her left hand, a pistol in her right and a ghastly bullet over her right temple, a woman supposed to be Mrs.Carlotta Hamingway [sic] Hemingray, the wife of Robert Hamingway [sic] Hemingray, a race horse man, was found weltering in her own lifeblood in their apartments by J. E. Locke of the Knickerbocker apartment house, 1340 Post street, at 8:35 o'clock last evening.
It was just at 8:30 o'clock last evening when Robert Hamingway [sic] Hemingray came to the front office in which Mr. Locke was sitting and said:
“Mr. Locke, I have just heard a shot, and I think it was in my room. I fear something has happened to my wife. I wish you would send someone inside and see if anything has occurred, I cannot.”
“I will go myself,” said Locke. He stepped down the hall and entered the room. At first you could see nothing, as the room was quite dark. He turned on the electric light and looking through the folding door that connected the little parlor with the bedroom he saw the prostrate form of the woman on the bed. As he stepped towards the bed Mr. Locke's worst fears were realized. Mrs. Hamingway [sic] Hemingray lay across the couch, partially propped up by pillows, dead, her lifeblood flowing from the wound in her head. About her flaxen hair she had tied a veil, as though she had been suffering from a headache.
 |
| Mrs. Carlota Hamingway. |
Mr. Locke stepped outside and told the waiting man and his brother, who was also with him, what had happened. Instead of entering the room the husband and his brother left the house and went to the Palace Hotel, where they, said they were going to stay for the night. From that place some 20 minutes later, the husband rang up and asked Mr. Locke to send him any messages that might be there for him. A note, sealed and addressed, but unstamped had been written to him by the suicide, but the proprietor of the house wisely refrained from mailing it and delivered it to the Deputy Coroner John Fennell upon his arrival at the scene of the tragedy. The sealed letter with a short note, written, presumably to her sister or sister-in-law, and addressed Rose, were found lying on a Knights no blank table in the parlor. The letter to the husband follows.
"Bob, Dear: Don't curse me when I am gone please. But I am heartbroken and cannot live without you, as I love you with all my soul. You'll bury me, won't you, Bob, just a little dirt over the body of the girl who would not live without you, dear? I am sorry I did such a wicked thing as gossip, but I am so young, only remember, Bob, and you have trifled, with my heart. Forgive me, dear, I beg of you.
“When you told me you did not care for me, to talk with me, I just longed to kiss you, throw my arms around your neck, but you would have knocked me down. So I die without one kiss, but I had one long look at your dear face. Ask Con and Rose to forgive me, for I can never do it again.
“Good-by, sweetheart. Again I say you will never know how you have gained the love of your little girl.
“CARLOTA.
“Mother’s address is 636 West Fourth street Cincinnati.
The shorter note read:
“Rose Please forgive me if I have done anything wrong.
“Mother’s address is Mrs. P. F. Campiglio, 636 West Fourth street Cincinnati, Ohio.”
The note was unsigned.
Among the effects in the bureau were two or three boxes containing what seemed to be headache powders. They were compounded after a prescription signed by doctor J. Albert Noble.
To all appearances the suicide had planned her death with much care and deliberation period she knew her husband's habits and had determined to end her life during His absence. Hamingway [sic] Hemingray kept a revolver in the room period it was with this weapon that the rash deed was done.
Robert Hamingway [sic] Hemingray, husband of the woman, was seen at the Palace last evening. He says that he left his wife at 7 o'clock and in company with his brother walked down town and bought some magazine from Cooper's, on Market street. Upon returning to the Knickerbocker, just as the door was being opened a shot was heard coming from the rooms both the husband and brother retreated to the hallway and called for the proprietor.
The husband can give no reason for the suicide. He said: I was married about three months ago in Chicago. My wife came with me. I have a stable and I'm here attending the races. My brother and myself were gone from our rooms probably 1 1/2 hours. Why my wife should take her life I cannot say. She was in good spirits when we left and it is a deep, impenetrable mystery to me.
I have been sick and under Dr. Noble’s care since I have been in San Francisco, but that could not have been in any way the cause. An uncle of my wife's committed suicide about two months ago, the weapon used being, I believe, a revolver. My wife was only 18 years old and I am 25.
“I was two years in Porto Rico, serving in the Fifth Calvary and Eleventh Infantry as a non-commissioned officer. I enlisted from Texas. I am the owner of the horses Lord Kitchener and Hindred. No, I am at a loss to know why my wife took her life. She had everything her heart could wish and I am dazed by the ordeal I am now going through.”
The brother of Robert Hamingway [sic] Hemingray corroborated the statements made by him and could throw no light upon the cause of suicide.
When in the army, Hamingway [sic] Hemingray was quite ill. After leaving the Government service he improved rapidly. Of late, however, so it is said, his old trouble has come back on him and he has been quite indisposed. It is thought by some that this, in connection with the headaches that seem to have troubled the suicide, may have led to the unpleasantness that finally goaded the 18 year old wife to take her life. One day this week the dead woman stopped one of the occupants of the house in which she was staying and said, half laughing and half in earnest:
“What would you do if your husband were cross and were always finding fault with you?”
The person addressed, scarcely knowing what to say, replied:
“Oh, I would put my arms around him and make love to him until he had forgotten all about his bad humor and loved me more than ever. With this reply, the little inquisitor turned and ran down the hall, laughing as she ran, to her room.
Hamingway [sic] Hemingray said at his room in the palace last night that the reason he did not go into the room after he heard the shot and after he had been informed that his wife was dead, was because he was a sufferer from heart disease and he feared the shock might be too much for him. Whether the brother of Hamingway [sic] Hemingray, who also remained outside the room and who also went downtown, is a sufferer from a cardiac lesion, was not made public.
Before she was married to Hamingway [sic] Hemingray the name of the dead woman was Carlota Bianca Campiglio. She was just 18. She is a woman slight of build, with light hair and beautiful blue eyes, that even the glassiness of death could not obliterate all the beauty. When found she had on a black skirt and a shirt waist of a dark blue material, with small white polka dots scattered through it. From the books in the room she was evidently a woman of some culture and refinement. About the rooms were photographs of many places and scenes, some of them of the Colorado canyon, evidentially taken quite recently. The photographs were mostly of women, several of whom seemed to be actresses of the better class.
A copy of the letters were taken to Hamingway [sic] Hemingray at the Palace early this morning, but he refused to look at them. His brother, after looking them over, said that to his mind they throw no light on the suicide. He had been living next door to the two for the past few weeks and never heard anything that suggested quarrelling. When questioned closely, the husband admitted the following facts in addition to those already made public: It was about a year ago that he met the woman at the Hot Springs in Arkansas. They kept up their acquaintance and about three months ago were married, after which they came here. The wife was a great talker, and he used to caution her not to gossip or say anything about the condition of the horses he owned, fearing that by doing so she would hurt him in the batting. Sometimes when they would be sitting in their room, she used to talk and chatter so much and so incessantly that he would have to ask her to stop, but he did not speak unkindly and the wife took the request all in good part, knowing perfectly well that it was not done to hurt her feelings. The “Rose” referred to is supposed to be Mrs. Rose Hess, a lady living in the Knickerbocker. Hamingway [sic] Hemingray admitted he was 25 years old, and a native of Kentucky. He had been living in New York for several years, and now considers that city his home. The dead woman was at the races yesterday, but did not tell her husband that she was going. She was seen in the grandstand by the brother late in the afternoon and when the husband returned home just before dinner he found the field glasses lying on the bureau and a form card on a chair nearby.